When the rain falls in Fire country
by stareater22
Summary: People meet in the rain, and some things change [slight kakairu]


Title: _When the rain falls in Fire country_ (because I can't think of better title)

Rating: PG-13

Summary: People meet in the rain, and some things _change_ (slight Kakairu if you squint really hard)

Set sometime after the Chuunin nominations (that would be around Volume 4 in the manga), but before the final Chuunin exams. I think.

oo..oo..oo..oo..oo..oo..oo..oo..oo.

It's raining again.

During these brief spring showers, Konoha actually _looks _like a hidden village, blanketed by the gray and unrelenting rain, with most of its residents sheltered within their warm and lighted homes.

Iruka has to admit that he loves this weather, loves the way the rain soaks into his clothes, striking his face with its own, unpredictable rhythm. He deliberately leaves his umbrella in his apartment before going to his classes, and takes his time walking down the empty streets after his shift in the mission room. Even his classes are a little less rowdyduring the rainy season, with most of the children staring dreamily off into the mist-shrouded image that the village presented beyond their classroom window. Really, Iruka thinks, spring showers are the best.

So he is a little surprised when he feels the presence of strong, unmasked chakra near him, his right hand automatically opening the latch of his shuriken holder as his body tenses for an attack. He is more surprised to see a shadow holding an umbrella stop right in front of him, a dark, blurred figure of man who seems to be..._chuckling_? Before the bemused chuunin can do anything else, the shadow drawls out in an amused, bored voice, "Maa, Iruka-sensei, I never pegged you as the suicidal type. Walking around in all this rain, are you sure you haven't been hanging too much around Sasuke or the Hyuugas?"

Iruka freezes for a few seconds before his mind matches the distinctive voice with the face in his memory. Ahhh, the Copy-nin, current jounin "commander" of his former charges and the subject of most of Naruto's ranting these days. Iruka gives himself a mental smack in head and promises to be a polite, good chuunin for the next five minutes or so of this unexpected meeting. "Ah, Good evening Hatake-san, I was just enjoying a walk in the rain. I'm glad to see you look well," Iruka lies, since he can't actually see the jounin clearly in the rain. He hopes that the man would simply accept his greeting and go away, go and do whatever it is that weird geniuses do in this weather, and leave him with his musings. The meeting for the Chuunin exams is still fresh in his mind, and he tenses unconsciously as he remembers the jounin's hard glare, his bored and condescending voice saying, _Stay out of this, they are no longer your students_.

The jounin steps closer to Iruka, and now Iruka can see his whole masked face, sees a single eye intensely observing him. Iruka blushes when he realizes how he must look to the jounin, his messy, ink-stained uniform, his hair down and bedraggled from all the rain, and his mouth hanging open from surprise. He immediately corrects that last one, and forcing a serious expression on his face, blurts out, "Is there anything I can do for you, Hatake-san?"

"Actually, I was thinking that I might be able to do something for you," and the jounin steps beside Iruka, holding up the umbrella above the two of them. The jounin's single visible eye is crinkled in a smile, and Iruka is too polite to tell the jounin to get lost, too shocked by the act of kindness to remind the other man that he actually _likes_ walking in the rain. "Aah, thank you, Hatake-san, I ahh..." is all he can say before he is cut off by the jounin. "Hnn...You might catch a cold walking around like this, Iruka-sensei, and we all know how your students will miss you if you get sick." The jounin chuckles again, with amusement or sarcasm, Iruka doesn't really know. But he is shocked by the jounin's next words.

"Listen, Iruka-sensei, I know that...we haven't been in the best of terms lately. I've never regretted my decision, but I may have been too harsh to you back then." _Is he apologizing?_ Iruka asks himself as he stares into the jounin's unreadable face. And slowly, he feels something in his chest unclench, loosen a bit and make him feel right again, make him feel like himself and not the parody of a polite, outclassed shinobi he's been trying to be for the past few minutes. He tilts his head to gaze at the silvery gray lines falling even harder outside their little shelter.

"I also owe you an apology, Hatake-san, for my rude behavior during the Chuunin meeting. I could've probably phrased my objection in a more private manner, and even so, I've come to agree with your decision. They really aren't my students anymore..." Iruka trails off vaguely as he reaches a hand outside the umbrella, watches the rain hitting his open palm, clenches it around the slippery water as he thinks to himself that maybe, maybe Hatake-san can actually be nice.

"Hnn, I wasn't really apologizing, you know." Or maybe not.

Iruka glares at the jounin before he realizes that it's just a joke, and his expression softens to somewhere in between exasperated and amused when he sees that crinkled eye again and hears the jounin's low chuckle. "Nice to know that you can take a joke, Iruka-sensei."

"Didn't know that you were such a jester, Hatake-san. I'm sure the circus can put such formidable talents to good use." And the jounin seems to find this even more amusing, slings his right arm around Iruka's shoulders, and steers him along the street. Iruka feels vaguely unsure about the whole thing, as if he'd just pick up some stray animal in the rain and hasn't decided yet what to do with it.

"I'm fine enough, I don't need your umbrella Hatake-san. Besides, I'm getting you all wet." Iruka begins to feel uncomfortable, begins to feel strange and panicky as he feels the body beside him radiating so much warmth, so much sense of dryness, and completely the opposite of the cool and wet that he was before their conversation began. He begins to pull away from the jounin, thinking that he belongs to the rain, to that cold embrace of benign arrows, before the arm around him tightens into an almost death-grip. "_It's okay_. It doesn't bother me Iruka-sensei, it won't kill me and it'd make us both feel so much better when we're having our tea, neh?"

"Tea?" Iruka blinks stupidly before the jounin almost drags him in a faster pace, past shinobi shops and houses and down along streets and corners he's not too familiar with. They stop in front of a small apartment, and Iruka watches numbly as the jounin opens the door with a key he takes from his pocket, and gestures Iruka to go inside. Iruka pauses for a moment as he regrets leaving his element, leaving behind the comfortable uncertainty and _unwarmth_ of the rain, before he makes his decision and gives Kakashi his first real smile since the incident. "Thank you Kakashi-san", he says before going in, a beaming Kakashi following in his wake.

"My pleasure, Iruka-sensei. And if you still feel up to it, I'll walk you home later in the rain".

-end-

A.N.: I also wanted to write something from Kakashi's perspective, so maybe I'll post a sequel about what happens next. I hope this one's not too bad, sometimes I feel like my writing's as sluggish as the music I listen to.


End file.
